The largest one-day food drive in the country takes place Saturday when letter carriers collect donations of non-perishable food left at mailboxes and dropped off at post offices.
The letter carriers’ food drive will re-stock barren shelves heading into the summer when school lunch programs stop and demand for emergency food assistance goes up, according to Candace Larger, director of the Open Pantry emergency food pantry in Springfield.
" People think it doesn't make a difference. But it makes a huge difference. If everyone in western Massachusetts put out a bag (of food) it would be a tremendous amount of food."
200,000 people sought emergency food assistance in western Massachusetts last year –a 50 percent increase from five years ago, according to the Food Bank of Western Massachustts.
